Friday, June 28, 2013

I made a practice 'tower' with dry stone bricks Thursday in preparation for what we will be creating with the kidswith wood, bricks and stones. I will be working with kids of all ages building neat stuff during the two days of the Canadian Dry Stone Walling Festival in Alton Ontario (being run by the new DSWAC). Bring your whole family this Saturday and Sunday and build exciting things with us.

Neil Rippingale of the Dry Stone Conservancy is here already helping build features and test wallers and teach students.

My good friend Norman Haddow from Scotland has been busy all week giving private instruction to students who can't be here on the weekend, repairing older walls in Alton, getting to know all the town folk and of course moving big rocks into position for the event.

The famous John Bland is here too. Here he is inspecting the various stone material we are working with.

His wall and arch is nearly completed near Montreal.

At the end of Thursday preparation work for the coming festival, Eric took a lot of us to see the Kerry Landman Memorial Tree he built at Island Lake Park. If you come to Alton you are not far from this amazing feature just outside Orangeville. It's worth the drive to see it in person.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

We had to claw our way along the hedgerow and retrieve tons of round fieldstone and load it onto the trailer to take to a new job yesterday. It felt like 100 % humidity. It was hot and sticky heavy work. There was poison ivy everywhere. The hawthorn kept scratching our arms and whacking us in the face. The rocks were slippery and awkward. It was late in the afternoon and we were achy and tired. But even with all the hardship, somehow it still seemed like an enjoyable task.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

This is one of two very large carved signs that were over the doors of the original commercial stone buildings which stood on the property of what is now this year's dry stone festival site in Alton Ontario. They had been salvaged, forgotten and then rediscovered in a field in Caledon Village and have now been incorporated into the design of the north wall which is being built this week by volunteers with the newly formed Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada prior to the actual festival event .

Monday, June 17, 2013

Faithful friends and longtime supporters of walling here in Canada gathered this past weekend and others will be gathering in the next two weeks (from Ontario right across the country, as well as the States, and Britain) to work together in Alton, to prepare to promote and celebrate not just walling, but the whole tradition of cooperation long associated with the craft worldwide.

These are good people, committed professionals eager to see walling enthusiasts and newcomers alike join forces in a now nation wide organization (a 'Canadian Association' - a legal, 'not for profit', cooperation with board members that were democratically elected, and a mission statement that was carefully crafted to not exclude any important aspects of dry stone walling being established here in Canada ) a body of people who have chosen to circumnavigate all forms of oneupmanship, elitism and negativity - past , present and future .

We are preparing for the best.

And that means building up and maintaining good relationships (not just walls) as well as a solidly Canadian dry stone wall identity.

Any other agenda would be insane — but then there are 'institutions' if you are looking for that sort of thing.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

After spending all day yesterday building with a great bunch of volunteers (all professional wallers - many of them familiar friends going way back to early days of the DSWAC) helping out at the first of two pre-build weekends, before the actual 2013 Canadian Dry Stone Festival in Alton on June 29 -30) several of us were invited back to Eric's farm for drinks. On arrival we discovered some of his goats had got loose and were grazing on the blackhouse roof.

No wonder goats were up there - the blackhouse roof has a delicious looking crop of several varieties of sedum, tall tufts of allium, patches of hen and chicks, a smattering of cactus and some lush garden variety weeds.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Many of the best wallers (like their walls) are exemplary, highly supportive and genuinely gracious. They are not mean spirited or coarse (even if their walls might be 'coursed') A well built dry stone wall is not a high maintenance structure. It lasts for years. It doesn't need special attention or cause a lot of trouble. It's just the 'standard' thing you would expect from a wall or a person. It does the job well and leaves other things to sort themselves out over the natural course of time. Oh that a waller's talent never exceeded the level of their character. Oh that highly talented wallers conducted themselves with as high a standard and as keen a concern for composure and integrity as their stonework seems to display.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Have you ever seen pictures of the old Scottish/English stone walls? Have you ever wanted to learn the age old craft of dry stone walling? We have a rare opportunity for you to learn from the best stone craftsmen in the world. We will be hosting a dry stone wall course in partnership with Maxwell Stone in Collingwood and Dean McLellan Stonework

The above was posted by someone on Facebook May 8th 2013 which Mary responded to below !

Mary Shaw-RimmingtonTHAT wall isn't in the UK — it's in Port Hope, Ontario on my property, mainly built by my husband, John Shaw-Rimmington,and appeared in Harrowsmith magazine (2004?) Pleased that you are advertizing the best wallers in the world using an image of my husband's work.

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This photo, taken only yesterday is of that same section of my wall, built nearly ten years ago.

I'm pleased to announce that I too will be teaching a dry stone walling class at William Lyon Mackenzie's (past Prime Minister of Canada) huge country estate Kingsmere near Ottawathe nation's capital on July 27 and 28.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

We had to have Miles put down yesterday. I'm taking a break from thinking about stones today to say goodbye to one really fabulous friend and companion. This video was taken overlooking a small brook that ran through the woods behind the vet's office which Miles and I happened to discover while waiting for Maddy and Mary to arrive at the vet's to be there with him at the end. Strangely, Miles would never drink water from a bowl. He only drank from the creek on our property or some natural water source. It was gratifying to see him be able to enjoy one last drink this way, just before he went on his way. We will remember you fondly, Good Buddy.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Presentation by Grga Frangeš on the award winning project "Preserving Dry-Stone Masonry Techniques of the Eastern Adriatic" by 4 Grada Dragodid from Croatia, laureate of European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2011 in the category Education, training and awareness-raising. This presentation has been voted as the best formal presentation by the audience at The Best in Heritage conference 2012.Thanks to Norman Haddow for sending me the link for this conference.

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President of DSWAC

I am a person who builds dry stone walls and bridges and thinks a lot about how to get other people discovering what a satisfying occupation it can be. I am founder and president of Dry Stone Walling Across Canada www.dswa.ca and an avid supporter of the idea of sharing knowledge freely and learning from others.